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Democracy 3: Africa will be a standalone expansion focusing on African politics

Positech Games' Cliff Harris is setting his horizons beyond the European and American political systems and is setting his sights on Africa for a new Democracy 3 standalone expansion.

For those fascinated by the world of politics, Democracy 3 has been an interesting window into the workings of various political systems and what it means to keep a constituency happy. Creator Cliff Harris is a self-confessed "political geek," as indicated by our interview with him earlier this year. So it makes sense that he'd eventually want to branch out beyond American and European styles of politics. That's why today he's announced a new standalone expansion for Democracy 3, simply titled "Africa."

"In the west, we tend to think of Africa as either the target of charity fund-raising concerts, or somewhere to go on a safari," Harris explains on the Positech Games blog. (via Eurogamer) "We never think about the African economies, or African industry or exports. Lets not forget Africa is home to a billion people... The problems, opportunities and characteristics of many African countries make for a fascinating experiment in political strategy. It also makes for perhaps more of a challenge. Some people claim that the USA is 'hard mode' for Democracy 3, but even in the USA, you aren’t dealing with the levels of corruption found in *some* African states. Poor infrastructure and low levels of literacy are not much of a problem in the west, but they are definite factors in Africa. The problems are different, making for different strategy, and hopefully, a very different and interesting gaming experience."

There's a website for the Africa expansion currently in place, but Harris says that it's subject to change over the coming weeks. 'Africa' will be created in conjunction with Stargazy Studios' Jeff Sheen and is aiming for an early 2016 release on PC and Mac.

Meanwhile, the base Democracy 3 continues to receive updates. The overview for the latest round of updates can be found in the video below. Those interested in checking out the political strategy game can find it on sale this week on Steam.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what is video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

Follow him on Twitter at @Ozz_Mejia for musings and random shenanigans.